The Day I Die
by theeShadyLady
Summary: This fic picks up right where the movie left off (haven't read the book in awhile so this is based solely on the movie.)


**_A/N- One shot, starting off where the movie ended._**

**_((DISCLAIMER: I do not own _****Tuck Everlasting****_.))_**

"It's sad, isn't it?"

Jesse didn't turn around. He didn't dare to even move. The voice behind him sounded so familiar he knew, it must be, it had to be her. But I couldn't be her. The headstone glaring back at him confirmed it. _Her granddaughter_, he had thought to himself. But even that didn't release him from his position; he couldn't bear to see anyone who was only partially Winnie.

He knew this the moment he read the words "Wife" and "Mother" engraved in stone. He had wanted to leave right when he'd read those words, but he couldn't make himself. He had knelt down not wanting to believe it; then stood up angrily when everything had sunk in. The thought that she had moved on, grown up, and had a family without him was what hurt the most. He still loved her, but this was proof that she had decided she didn't love him.

"Knowing she's out here all alone, what a horrible thought. It's like she's waiting for someone...someone who clearly never came." The girl let out a long sigh, "Well, until now."

Jesse dropped to the ground in disbelief. There was no way that he was right. It isn't possible. He stared at the headstone just inches from him that bore Winnie's name.

"Jesse Tuck, I will love you until the day I die." It was a rehearsed line. She knew that's what she was going to say to him, she knew it eighty-six years ago when he left. And even still, after all those years of waiting, she still meant it.

"Winnie?" Jesse was crying as she knelt down beside him.

"Yes. Yes, it's me." He wasn't looking at her; he was scared to, afraid his memory had tricked him, afraid she wasn't the same. "I didn't think you were going to come back. I thought you had forgotten me." She was crying too. "After twenty-five years, I told myself that I didn't care anymore. I was going to leave and travel the world without you. I was hurt. And I wanted you to hurt, too. So I bought that; put it here, where I knew you'd find it; packed up everything I had left; and finally realized I couldn't do it. I still wanted you to come back for me. I still loved you. And I knew that if you saw this you wouldn't come looking for me."

Jesse looked over at her and realized everything he had been afraid of was for not. She was the same. She was still Winnie. She still loved him. But all he said was, "Who's Jackson?"

Winnie laughed softly; she knew he'd ask that, "It was my mother's maiden name."

Jesse shifted closer and pulled her into a hug. "I've missed you, Winnie. Miles kept saying you wouldn't be here. But I knew, I knew, you would be."

"Mile _was_ right," Winnie answered somberly, pulling away from him.

"No, he wasn't. You're here." He smiled as he twirled her braid between his thumb and index finger.

"But I did leave. My mother, my father, and I, we left. I originally decided I needed to live my life, like Tuck said that I should."

"What did Tuck say?!"

"Jesse, stop. They sold our house and all of our land, except for the woods, because I plead for them not to. We were going to get away from this town and everything connected to it." Winnie paused to look at Jesse, "But there was an accident. We were on a boat and they... they couldn't swim and... and... and then I came back and I chose you."

"So, you're saying I'm your second choice," there was tangible pain in his voice.

"You were my first choice, but there were still things that kept me from making that choice."

Jesse breathed in, he didn't care. She was with him now and that was all the really mattered. "I do believe that I still owe you a trip up one thousand, six hundred and fifty-two stairs."

"Did you really think that you could just drive back here on your new motorcycle, looking just as good as the say you left eighty-six years ago and not explain what took you so long to come back? It's not that simple."

"It wasn't safe." He frowned, because that had been what he was hoping.

"Jesse, five years would have been long enough. Or ten. Or fifteen, I could've handled fifteen. But this..."

"Okay, I know and I would have come back for you sooner. But I was afraid Miles was right. I didn't want to come back and see you with someone else. I didn't want to come back to this." He gestured toward her fake grave.

Winnie understood. It was something she had feared in those years as well. That Jesse found someone else, someone who was better than her. So when he admitted the truth she forgave him. "So you never went to the Eiffel Tower?"

He kissed her cheek and stood up, offering her his hand, "Never even considered it. I wasn't going without you."

**~theeShadyLady~**


End file.
